Wed Aug 27 15:49:16 2008

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Jankovic, Kuznetsova, Dementieva reach third round in Flushing

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Flushing Meadows, NY (Sports Network) - Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, former champion and last year's runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva were a trio of second-round winners Wednesday at the U.S. Open.

The second-seeded Jankovic went the distance to sneak past Swede Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5 in 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Jankovic, who held the No. 1 ranking for one week two weeks ago, appeared to be cruising on Day 3, up a set and serving for the match at 5-4 in the second, but Arvidsson had other plans.

The Swede won a second-set tiebreak despite falling behind 0-3 in the extra session. Arvidsson won six straight points to grab a 6-3 advantage in the tiebreak and would force a third set three points later.

Jankovic ultimately prevailed in a very tight third set, and converted on her second match point of the day when Arvidsson misfired long on one final two- handed backhand.

The 23-year-old Jankovic piled up nine double faults, while Arvidsson uncorked 54 unforced errors and had her serve broken eight times. The Swede broke the Serb's serve on six occasions.

The third-seeded Kuznetsova, meanwhile, was tested in the first set before cruising to a 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 decision against Romanian Sorana Cirstea at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The three-time major finalist Kuznetsova captured her lone major title here in Flushing four years ago and lost to Belgian Justine Henin in last year's Big Apple finale.

Kuznetsova will meet Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik in the third round.

A fifth-seeded Dementieva ran her current winning streak to eight matches with a 6-2, 6-1 pasting of France's Pauline Parmentier. Dementieva, who lost to Kuznetsova in the 2004 all-Russian U.S. Open finale, is fresh off her gold medal-winning performance in Beijing two weeks ago.

Up next for the two-time major runner-up Dementieva will be Britain's Anne Keothavong.

A big surprise came when Ukrainian Tatiana Perebiynis ousted eighth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-3. The Top-10 star Zvonareva was a bronze medalist in Beijing earlier this month.

Fifteenth-seeded Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder cruised into the round of 32 with a 6-3, 6-3 pasting of 17-year-old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

An upset came when the aforementioned Keothavong took out 25th-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, while a 28th-seeded Srebotnik advanced with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Austrian Yvonne Meusburger.

Additional second-round wins came for Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova, Chinese Na Li and Russian Ekaterina Makarova.